Education authorities admit some ‘exam marking errors’ in grades posted late Friday   – Portugal Resident

Portugal’s education authorities have admitted that some secondary school exam grades sent to schools long after the usual time on Friday were incorrect because of a ‘file export error’.

This is just the latest setback in the troubled first year of digital exam marking that has already delayed results and sparked mounting political criticism.

EduQA, the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment (EduQA) said some grades included in the first batch of results sent by the National Examinations Jury (JNE) at around 7.30pm on Friday were inaccurate due to an export error.

The mistake was discovered after schools had already begun publishing results and informing students and parents, but EduQA said it was corrected the same evening, with a new set of files containing the “effectively awarded and validated” grades sent to schools at around 11pm. 

Schools were instructed to clarify any discrepancies with students and parents, some of which were already under the mistaken belief that initial grades were definitive…

The institute added that further results sent to schools on Saturday and today related only to exams where grades had initially been suspended pending validation.

The disclosure comes after months of technical failures surrounding the new digital marking platform, introduced this year for the first time to correct more than 300,000 national secondary school examination papers sat by around 166,000 students.

The rollout was plagued by repeated technical problems, system outages, missing exam pages and security concerns, forcing the Ministry of Education to postpone key deadlines and delay the publication of results.

1,400 missing grades finally released

Schools began receiving around 1,400 outstanding exam grades today after EduQA completed the validation of papers that had remained marked as “suspended”, or had displayed ‘invalid negative values’.

The updated files allow schools to replace the “suspended” designation with students’ final marks.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Education Ministry apologised for the delays and disruption caused by the process – and insisted that no student would be disadvantaged in this week’s university admissions process because of the problems.

The number of delayed examinations proved higher than Education Minister Fernando Alexandre had initially indicated.

With secondary school results now largely completed, attention is turning to the delayed publication of ninth-grade national assessment results early this week (they are due to go up on Monday now) and to the second round of national secondary school examinations, which will again use the same trouble-beset digital marking system.

Communists demand minister’s accountability

These latest developments have prompted renewed criticism from the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), whose secretary-general Paulo Raimundo described the handling of this year’s exam-marking “a mess” and “complete chaos”.

Speaking to journalists in Braga today, Raimundo accused Education Minister Fernando Alexandre of arrogance, refusing to accept responsibility and attempting to shift blame onto teachers, school principals and others involved in the process.

“After what he said about the teachers, after what he said about the school principals, after what he put families through, after all the pressure he placed on students, let’s be honest: the conditions for him to continue talking with teachers, families, school principals and students are very, very, very limited,” Raimundo said, adding: “I don’t think there are any at all.”

The communist leader also argued that the government’s handling of the crisis reflects what he described as a broader “profound degradation” of the administration, saying his party is seriously considering tabling a motion of censure.

The exam crisis has become one of the most politically-damaging episodes faced by the minority PSD/CDS government, with opposition parties accusing ministers of pressing ahead with an untested digital assessment system despite repeated warnings from teachers and school leaders. Even today, as further results were being released, PS Socialists were urging the extension of universities’ admissions processes, on the basis of the “current instability”.

Source material: SIC Notícias/ Lusa